There are many pieces of business form handling equipment, such as pressure sealer systems sold by Moore Business Forms, Inc. under the designation "4800 Sealer System" and described in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/417,775, filed Oct. 6, 1989 (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein), which typically act on sheet product to perform various sealing functions and create an end product, such as a mailer. However, there are many circumstances where it is desirable to use such a sealer with business forms in a continuous supply configuration.
Unfortunately, printers which produce forms in continuous supply configuration cannot simply pass the forms through a conventional detacher (such as that sold by Moore Business Forms) and then directly to the sealer since detachers use integral tape delivery conveyors which vary in floor height from model to model, the side edges of the detached forms from detachers are irregular and can have a variation of up to one-half inch depending upon stock, perforations, operator skill, etc., and the detaching action itself is not completely regular, occasionally resulting in one or more of the detached forms lagging or leading the shingled stack and preventing a clean removal ("pick-off") of the form at the end of the detacher conveyor.
In order to deal with the above mentioned problem, according to the invention a method and apparatus are provided which effect deshingling of the forms between the detacher and the sealer, as well as proper registration of the deshingled forms, so that the forms may be readily acted upon by the sealer and/or intermediate equipment. Preferably, according to the invention a distinct conveyor assembly is operatively connected between the detacher and the sealer so that the detached, shingled forms may be cleanly fed, in registration, directly to a sealer, or first to a hopper and then to a folder before being fed to the sealer.
According to a broad aspect of the present invention, a method of handling business forms having or formable into multiple plies with lines of adhesive between the plies, and originally in a continuous supply configuration, is provided. The method comprises the steps of sequentially and continuously: (a) detaching individual forms from the continuous supply of forms while conveying them in a first direction, to form shingled forms having irregularly positioned side edges moving in the first direction; (b) deshingling the forms, so that they are spaced from each other in the first direction; (c) registering the deshingled forms; and (d) acting on the adhesive lines of the forms to effect sealing of the plies of the forms together.
Steps (b) and (c) are preferably accomplished simultaneously while conveying the forms in the first direction. The individual forms may be folded to form the multiple plies between steps (c) and (d), and in such a situation preferably are fed into the top of a hopper and withdrawn from the bottom of the hopper, prior to folding. Registration may be accomplished by conveying the forms against a single side aligning structure, or funneling them into contact with dual side aligning structures. The deshingling action is accomplished by conveying the forms in the first direction at a much greater speed than the conveying of the shingled forms, e.g. at least about ten times greater speed.
According to another aspect of the present invention, apparatus for accomplishing a method as set forth above is provided The apparatus may take one of two configurations. In the first configuration, a conveyor belt is angled with respect to a substrate, and has a leading end having a nip roller disposed thereover, the leading end of the conveyor belt grasping each shingled form in turn and conveying it at high speed against an edge aligning structure, and then feeding it directly to the sealer. In a second configuration, the conveyor belt is mounted in the central portion of the substrate with a spring pressed roller thereover, and a plurality of gravity biased rollers, each individual form being conveyed past side edges funneling toward each other and ultimately forming parallel aligning edge structures which guide the forms into the top of the hopper. The forms are withdrawn from the bottom of the hopper to a folder, and then fed to a sealer.
The invention also contemplates a distinct conveyor assembly for operatively connecting a detacher to a sealer for transforming continuous configuration business forms into sealed individual business form mailers. The assembly comprises: a substrate; conveying means mounted in association with the substrate for conveying forms along the substrate in a first direction; means for registering the forms during conveyance in the first direction; and means for releasably mounting the substrate between a detacher and a sealer. The conveying and registering means may take the form of either of the two configurations described above.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide for the simple and effective handling of individual business forms which are originally in a continuous supply configuration so that they may be properly fed to a sealer adapted to act on individual forms. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.